


queer in verona

by inkstainedknitter



Series: queers in verona [1]
Category: Hamlet - Shakespeare, Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1950s, F/F, F/M, Genderqueer Character, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2013-12-31
Packaged: 2018-01-06 22:04:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1112031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkstainedknitter/pseuds/inkstainedknitter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>juliet is queer and finds a very nice girl to make out with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	queer in verona

most times, juliet is simply juliet, in her work dress and sensible boots, her short hair pinned up out of the way, ophelia’s lipstick on her lips like it’s a promise the police won’t bother them.

 

but sometimes juliet is julien, lacy shift ophelia cut into an undershirt worn under a pale blue button down shirt when she takes ophelia dancing on saturday nights in clubs far away from factories and river sides and there is no promise.

 

they both start the same way:

 

when juliet wakes up in the chapel, she wakes up alone. there is no friar lawrence to tell her if the nausea and tremors wracking her body are normal, no late mourner come to kneel in the small chapel to say godspeed to the daughter of capulet, and there is no romeo, with his motorcycle and his naive faith that things will turn out alright. there is just her and the sound of her breath, harsh and ragged..

 

paris is dead. paris is dead. she makes friar lawrence tell her that over and over again as she cuts her hair, until she can convince herself to believe him. paris. is. dead. she stops trembling after that, her fingers making quick work of the church clothes she had been meant to be buried in. romeo is gone, friar lawrence tells her as she casts off the last shreds of capulet. what’s in a name, after all, but grief? the clothes friar lawrence brings her are pulled from the donation box. they don’t fit comfortably, the skirt is too long, the shirt too short in the sleeves, but there is no capulet left in her.

 

romeo is gone, paris is dead. she finds herself mourning for neither of them.

 

maybe juliet capulet would’ve.

 

she’s supposed to leave verona. in her varsity jacket pocket, there’s a train ticket out of verona meant to take her to the arms of nuns who will set her up properly. she does not go. instead, she finds a boarding house with an empty room, pays for it with money borrowed stolen from friar lawrence. she promises she’ll return it sometime.

 

the next day, she finds a woman in the room next to her who will cut her hair, explains that she’d let her youngest sister - she has three, this juliet - cut her hair before she left for verona, but she can’t find work if it looks like a ten year old cut it with dull scissors. the woman laughs, and tames juliet’s hair into a short bob. after the haircut, juliet finds a job at a factory sewing buttons onto uniforms for verona’s finest soldiers, where she pins up her hair the way the woman showed her and keeps her head down.

 

ophelia works at a factory across the river making bombs. her hands are callused, and her hair is a gorgeous mess that juliet wants to run her hands through. they meet at one of the clubs near the riverside, where all the soldiers coming home like to spend a night or three dancing. juliet falls for her immediately.

  
a week after they meet, juliet goes dancing with a red handkerchief tied around her wrist. ophelia takes her home that night, and juliet learns to replace god’s name with beautiful ophelia in her prayers. 


End file.
